A chain of Budgens stores has gone bust resulting in more than 800 workers losing their jobs.

Administrators are closing all 34 Budgens convenience stores run by FROL, only nine months after the supermarket was bought from the Co-op and little more than a month after parent company Booker was taken over by Tesco.

It is not thought the closures will impact any of the other franchise Budgens stores.

The administrators, PwC, said they had failed to find a buyer and were looking for firms to take over the leases of the stores, which stretch from Dorset to Scotland. None of Bristol's Budgens stores are affected.

Nine of the 34 closed at the weekend and the remaining 25 will shut for good over the next two weeks.

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Mike Denny, joint administrator at PwC, said: "Unfortunately, we have been unable to find a buyer and it is not commercially viable to continue trading the stores.

"We are working closely with the Co-op, USDAW and the relevant government agencies to ensure that all employees receive the maximum levels of practical and financial support through the redundancy process."

At the end of January, Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket, reached an agreement to buy food wholesaler Booker in a £3.7 billion deal. The grocery giant said the tie-up will create “the UK's leading food business" and deliver significant cost savings for the combined group. Booker is the country's largest wholesaler and owns the Londis and Budgens convenience store brands.

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A statement from the company posted today said: “Since its acquisition of the stores from Co-op in July 2016, the Company had experienced difficult trading conditions. This resulted in the Company being placed into administration despite sustained efforts to make the business more commercially viable.

“Following their appointment, the Administrators have been assessing interest in the business. As a result, following the closure of nine stores at the weekend, the remaining 25 stores will, regrettably, cease trading over the course of the next two weeks with the loss of the remaining 611 jobs.”